HUGHTON ON TIGERS TEST

THERE was a mixed bag of team news from the Canary camp as Chris Hughton prepares his side to travel to newly promoted Hull City on Saturday (3pm).

The City boss confirmed he will be without the services of both striker Gary Hooper and winger Elliott Bennett for the game. Former Celtic frontman Hooper needs a while longer to recover from a knock he picked up in City’s final pre-season match against Panathinaikos and unfortunately there has been a long-term set-back for Bennett, the 24-year-old injuring knee ligaments in Saturday’s opener against Everton.

Hughton commented: “We had some bad news as a result of Saturday’s game where Elliott Bennett played and had a reaction afterwards and later found out he had a knee problem. It was operated on last night and unfortunately will see him out for a number of months.

“Gary still hasn’t trained yet. We felt the progress might have been a little bit quicker than what it is - but at the time we were always fearful that it might be more than it actually was – that was the good news but consequently it’s ended up taking a little longer than we thought.”

However, there was also some positive news ahead of Saturday’s game with Anthony Pilkington, Sebastien Bassong and Robert Snodgrass back in contention for selection having returned to training after injury.

“We’ve also had some that have come back from injury - the good news is Anthony Pilkington and Sebastien Bassong trained this week and Robert Snodgrass trained today.”

The Canaries are waiting to confirm if latest signing Johan Elmander will be involved in the action but Hughton confirmed he will be making the trip to East Yorkshire.

“Hopefully we’ll get international clearance we’re still waiting on that, but he’ll certainly be in the squad, whether he’s able to participate or not.”

Dutch international Leroy Fer also comes into contention for his first competitive Canary start having served his one-game suspension against Everton last weekend.